Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Using Pentagon Money To Pay For A Border Wall Is Harder Than It Seems

President Trump couldn't convince Congress to sign off on a $25 billion request to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and efforts to get the Pentagon to pick up the tab may be hitting another kind of wall.

Pentagon press secretary Dana White told reporters Thursday that Secretary of Defense James Mattis spoke with Trump about the request this week.

"The secretary has talked to the president about it," White said at a regularly scheduled briefing. "Securing Americans and securing the nation is of paramount importance to the secretary."

White said she couldn't offer any additional specifics but budget and military spending experts say the unusual request might not be legal — at least not this year. Complex budget and spending rules limit how far government agencies can stray from strict funding guidelines included in spending bills.

Once Congress approves a spending measure and the president signs the bill into law, the spending levels are locked in until the end of the fiscal year. The spending bill that passed last week locks in spending levels through the end of September.